With Loving Djinni out of the house (and selling nicely), we can now turn our attention to the next book: Softpaw.

This story has been with us for years, albeit in a very rudimentary form. When we decided to make it a proper book, we took our time to look at its universe and the stories spinning off the original one. And let me tell you, there is a lot of stories in that bag. More than would make sense to write without any idea if anyone would want to read them at all.

So we came up with the following. The first three books of the Smilodon Pride collection are not connected. They are standalone novels, each dealing with one of the three werecat siblings that form the core of these stories. If one of these three initial books (or two, or three) sell well and there is a noticeable interest in a sequel, we sure as hell will be writing that one. But we want to have a look at how the first three perform before we make that decision. It's not as if we don't have enough other books to write.

The first book out of the gates will be 'Softpaw' - a hot paranormal romance set in contemporary Paris, among cops and prostitutes, werecats and vampires. As before, we have managed to commision a cover with the adorable Natalia Nesterova, and it turned out pretty damn awesome. So without further ado, here's the cover for Smilodon Pride #1 - Softpaw. (click to enlarge)

I am so very happy that Natalia didn't only manage to bring across the two main characters very closely to how we envisioned them, but also the mood of the place and the unmistakeable roofscape of Paris, where a significant part of the book's action takes place.

And to make things complete, here's the current version of the blurb, still a bit unwieldy and long, but close enough to the final thing you can get a feeling what the book will be about:

Softpaw is an m/m paranormal romance about cynics and romantics, profanity and refinement, and how much work there actually is in ‘making it work’.

Connor’s life could have been the dream of any cultured werecat. He is spending his days in Paris’ gay quarter with comfortably little real work, playing the piano, surrounded by art, fine food and good friends. It could have been, if not for a feral vampire preying on the prostitutes of ‘his’ quarter, killing the boys of the Marais one by one.

When Connor invites a newly arrived hooker to stay on his houseboat, the last thing he expects is Michel to be a member of the Brigade Criminelle - a troubled, hunky rookie cop sent undercover to explore Connor’s connection to the murders, picked mostly because he had been a boy of the Marais himself, not so long ago.

Hiding their true nature becomes a problem for both when their realize there maybe is more to their inital attraction. But in order to bring down the serial killer and maybe have a chance at making their relationship work out, one of them will have to take the first, critical leap...

Right now, we have the ambitious idea to publish Softpaw on Bastille Day 2016, that is, July 14th. If we managed to hold up this schedule, it means we will be able to bring advance reader copies to EuroPrideCon in June. Numbers will be limited, so let us know if we should reserve one for you!

That's about it for the moment, and if you have any questions, remarks or suggestions - you know how much we love to talk about our stories, so please don't hesitate to let us know.

I love the cover! That's actually almost exactly how I pictured Michel. And Connor's teeth are pretty impressive, nothing soft about him at all. Though I'd love to get my hands into his fur... I'm a cat person